Haunted
by Delano
Summary: Angel Amelia Atwater-Phodes crossover. Felicity, part fo the original Midnight, seeks the help of all-around-good-guy Angel when she learns that Midnight has been rebuilt and her former owner is looking for her again. an: I suck at coming up w titles
1. Dreams

Disclaimer: I (unfortunately, might I add...) do not own any charcters from the show Angel (which has wrongly been cancelled, as I'm sure most of you know) or any of the characters from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes books. The only charater that I do own is Felicity...

a/n: I suggest that those of you who read Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' books read _Midnight Predator_ before reading this fic, seeing as how it does contain some spoilers about the book. If you don't read her books, I recomend them too you...they're a good read, and I'll explain things so you don't get confused. This is my first fic, so please r and r....

Felicity sat alone at the table, sipping rootbeer, and twirling the gold chain around her neck between her thumb and forefinger. She stared blankly up at the human singing, or rather butchering Queen in a terrible karaoke rendition of _We are the Champions_. Shaking her head, she briefly wondered how Lorne, owner of the well established karaoke bar, could stand to listen to such horrible signing day after day.

Lorne was an empath demon and could read the souls and thoughts of others and give them advice accordingly. However, he could only do this when they sang karaoke. the costumers of Karatas(a/n: I'm not sure if that's what the bar's called...I think it is, but I'm not sure...) were a wide variety of demons, vampires, and humans. That's how Felicity stumbled upon the place; for most of her long life, she had lived among vampires, and was accustomed to their presence in her life. The brief span in her life when there had been no vampires in it had been dull and empty. Felicity thought the night life suited her much better.

She glanced down at her watch. 12:00 AM. As much as she enjoyed the night crowd at Karatas, she still has a day job at a local community theater. She enjoyed the job and intended to keep it for as long as she could. With a sigh, she stood up and made her way to the door. Lorne intercepted her on the way out with a 'Not going to stay and sing?' though he already knew the answer.

'I swore that I'd never sing for you, Lorne, and you well know it. My past is depressing and private, and I have no intentions on sharing it with you,' she paused, then added, 'Unless I'm really desperate for advice.'

Lorne smile and laughed lightly at his companion's response, and let Felicity on her way back to her lonely apartment 15 minutes away.

Her apartment was tastefully decorated with mementoes from her lonely life. Technically she was 393 years old, though her birthday was coming up in few days. When she 16, she had been blood bonded to a vampire who went by the name of Gabriel Donovan. For 209 miserable years after that she had spent almost all of her time with Gabriel. Nearly 170 years ago, she had managed to escape from his hold and managed to pull her life back together...more or less. She had no intention of ever returning to Gabriel, even though a small and very annoying voice in the back of her head constantly reminded her that if Gabriel really wanted to find her, he could easily track her down again.

Felicity quietly changed into her pajamas and tied her long reddish-brown hair back, enjoying the enveloping silence. With a heavy sigh, she fell back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to envelope her.

_Gabriel dragged her to her feet by the collar of her shirt. He had been trying to beat the concept of servility into the girl he had bought as a slave three years ago. He had tried this method before, and, as of yet, had been unsuccessful. the girl had a strong will and more pride than she knew what to do with. As a human, he had been much the same; too caught up in his own intelligence and cockiness to ever let Jeshickah own him like she did others._

_He looked into Felicity's stormy grey eyes that were now welled with tears and clouded with pain. Another wave of anger surged through him; he had been tricked often enough by those soft innocent eyes, and every time he was it was like a stab to his pride. With this thought, he backhanded her again, sending Felicity to the floor once more._

'_Please,' she begged softly. 'I'm sorry...forgive me? Please...' In all honesty, she had forgotten what she had done wrong this time, but she wanted to stop the pain and groveling and begging, as much as she despised it, was often the only way to stop it. He looked down at her again. She was so helpless as she lay there sobbing and bleeding. Gabriel's expression softened as he looked at Felicity...his Felicity. Gently, he sank to his knees and positioned her head so the it lay on his lap. After brushing a few strands of hair out of her face, he picked up her right hand, which was now covered in blood and began to lick it off as she faded into unconsciousness on his lap._

a/n: I hope you liked it...that dream will be explained in the next chap...please review, even if you did hate it :)


	2. Propositions

Disclaimer: see pervious chap

a/n: Hullo..first, thanks go out to the one person who reviewed (makes me feel loved, y'all). Anyway, sorry that this took so long to get up. I've been real busy with school and crap like that, and this chap is a bit longer than the last (by, like, 1000 words or so...not that much of a difference...) and my computer was being gay (as it does...a lot) anyway, enough of my excuses. Enjoi

* * *

Felicity sat up, drenched in a cold sweat, gasping for air. She looked over at the alarm clock. The bright red numbers that read 6:03 AM jarred her out of the after-shock of the nightmare. For the past week, memories such as that one had been plaguing her normally dreamless sleep. She got up and walked over to her medicine cabinet. Advil. that's what she needed. The phantom images often brought along with them a phantom headache. Just yesterday she woke up screaming with the man in the apartment across the hall banging on the door, thinking that someone was killing her or something.

She still had about two hours before she had to be anywhere, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Running was the only thing she could think of doing, it would help her sort her thoughts. Felicity had always been under the impression that running, or exercising in general, was one of the most calming things you could do, seeing as how you don't need to put any great thought into what you were doing.

The air outside was crisp and cool...or rather as crisp and cool as the air could get in the middle of L.A. She thought back to the dream she had just had. She knew what had triggered the long-suppressed memories, even if she didn't want to admit it. Midnight. Felicity had belonged to midnight for most of her life; 213 years to be exact. Midnight had been headquarters for the reigning vampiric community through the 17th, 18th, and beginning of the 19th centuries. Jeshickah and her sister had founded Midnight in the mid-1500's and steadily gained power until they had control of the majority of the vampiric community in the early 1600's. The backbone of the entire empire was the very prosperous human slave trade.

Felicity entered the trade when she was 12 in 1622 and had belonged to Gabriel until Midnight was destroyed by an opposing group of older vamps (most of them from Silver's line) around 1835. It came to her attention some 50 years later that the vampires who destroyed Midnight abolished the slave trade, as well, claiming they didn't believe in caged prey. For the first time in ages Felicity had been able to live without the constant anxiety of Gabriel coming back to claim her. Until just recently, that is.

About a week before, Felicity had been sitting in Karatas,(as she often did) talking to two vampires. The two were brothers (twins, actually) and had known Felicity since the 1930's. Both of the were strong and extremely loyal to those they consider a friend. They made good conversation (most of the time), that added to the fact that they were both _hot_, made them good company. They had been sitting at the table for awhile, making decent (I wouldn't call it pleasant) conversation, when Kristopher (the older of the two) had suddenly remembered something and turned the conversation completely.

'Oh, have you heard, Felicity?' he said brightly.

'Heard what?' she replies with a smile.

'About Midnight. I mean, Nikolas and I are too young to have been around for the original Midnight, but we thought maybe you were old enough–'

'Wait,' she said sharply, cutting him off. 'Did you say Midnight?'

'Yeah,' Kristopher said slowly. 'I take it you were around for the original Midnight, then.'

'Yeah,' she said coldly. 'Yeah, I was. So what have you heard about it?'

'It's been rebuilt,' Nikolas spoke this time. He elaborated in response to the look on Felicity's face. 'One of the slave trainers decided to rebuild it. I'm not sure which one, though. All I know is that Jeshickah has no part in it yet. Consequently, its not as strong as it once was.'

Felicity struggled for words for a moment, but finally managed to spit out:'Who...who told you?' She hoped that it had been some unreliable source, that maybe the twins sources were wrong for once. But, of course, she wasn't that lucky.

'Kendra,' Nikolas supplied, naming the first vampire in his line. 'She told me at a bash the other night.'

'She got the news from one of her fledglings by the name of Daryl. he was a part of the original Midnight, apparently,' Kristopher finished for his brother.

'The new Midnight...does it include the slave trade?' she asked, trying desperately to mask her fear.

'I believe so,' Nikolas said, taking a sip from a glass filled with a red liquid that Felicity had no desire to identify. At that moment, her heart sank and bother vampires decided to change the conversation again, upon seeing the obvious distress their friend was in.

Felicity had replayed the conversation in her mind over and over again, hoping that she had heard something wrong. Alas, it was not so. Just as the twins had said, Midnight was back. Simply the thought of Midnight was enough to bring back the painful memories of her past with Gabriel.

Felicity returned home, showered, dressed, and headed off to the theatre, making a pit stop at Starbucks for breakfast. At work a couple people asked her if she was feeling alright, saying she looked rather ill. She said she hadn't been sleeping well. Her fellow cast members than spent the better part of an hour suggesting ways to help her sleep better. The favorite idea was calling the tech director and have him lecture her on the importance of floor mics, a lecture they had long since memorized. After rehearsal, Felicity went and ate a quiet lunch at Wendy's (mmmm...fast food) before heading over to the dance studio where she studies jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, and some acro and swing.. She had always enjoyed dancing, and she had a distinct talent for it.

After dance and dinner, she headed over to Karatas to listen to some horrible karaoke, drink some rootbeer, and perhaps have a chat with Lorne. It was 9 o'clock before anything even remotely noteworthy happened. She was sitting at the table, watching the current singer. The man (vampire, actually) lacked talent in singing, but _oh_ was he nice to look at. He stood at about 6'1" and was well built. He has a sort of casually spiked hairstyle that made you want to run your hand through his hair. his child-like shyness on the stage accented his already angelic features. though he wasn't really Felicity's type, she knew many girls who would kill to go out with him. In particular, her co-worker, Carmen.

The thought of Carmen started a completely new train of thoughts that eventually led to her performance on Friday. It was the closing performance, and family/ close friends of the cast got in free. She had asked Lorne to come, but he was busy that night (or so he said). She hated not having anyone she knew come to her shows. It reminded her how alone she really was in the world.

The man singing at the moment finished and stepped down to where Lorne was standing with some four other people. Probably the singers friends; Lorne would never discuss a client in front of them otherwise. She was about to get up and leave 9she was tired; lack of sleep and a busy day will do that to you), when Lorne called her over to the table.

'Felicity, I think you might be able to help,' he called. 'Would you come over here for a bit?'

Puzzled, she obliged as Lorne explained to the people he was talking to. 'She's blood-bonded to a vampire, though she won't tell me who, and knows a lot about the vampiric community outside L.A. She'll most likely be able to help.'

'What's up, Lorne?' she asked as she approached.

'Felicity, this is Angel Investigations.' She blinked...the name had no meaning to her whatsoever. 'Anyway, they're a detective agency...all about helping the helpless. They've got a potential case, but they're stuck. I thought maybe you could help.'

'Help how?'

'Information,' said the man who would later be introduced as Angel. 'We don't have very many courses outside of California, and we think that what's coming is a lot bigger than California.'

She pulled up a chair and sat down. "I'll help under one condition,' she said, an idea suddenly coming to her.

'And what would that be?'

'You come to my show on Friday,' she said with a smile.

There was a unanimous 'Huh?' across the table.

'Felicity is an actress,' Lorne explained. 'This Friday is their closing show; Family and friends get in free, However, she has no one to come see here, and it makes her feel like a loner.'

She laughed. He knew her all too well. "What he said,' was her reply. Everyone agreed to her terms, saying that it'd it be nice to have a Friday off. They spent the next ten minutes casually talking about the play before Felicity remembered the purpose of the conversation.

'Okay,' she said. 'What do you want to know?'

'There's something starting to happen among the greater vampiric community,' Wesley said (introductions had been made during the afore mentioned conversation.) "The only thing is we don't know what.'

'We think it's some sort of revolution. A shift in power,' Angel continued. 'We know a lot, but not enough to know what's coming.'

Felicity did. If Midnight was back, as Nikolas and Kristopher had said, then it was possible, even probable, that they were trying to overthrow Silver's line in New Mayhem. She sighed. "I think I may know what's going on,' she started. She wanted to make sure that her past didn't come up in this, so she had to chose her words carefully. 'About 300 years ago, there was an empire that was ruled by the reigning line of vampires at the time. In 1835, it was destroyed by an opposing line, and they've ruled the lunar(see bottom on this one, mates) vampiric community since. It's come to my attention, however, that some are trying to reconstruct the empire. I'm not positive, but it's likely they're trying to regain some of their old power.'

'This empire,' Gunn said. 'How powerful was it?'

'Really powerful. They had control over practically everything.'

'Was this a good type of powerful?' Fred asked. 'I mean, what would happen if they did get more power?'

'Has there ever been a good type of powerful?' Felicity responded. 'If they had power like they used to, the effects would be devastating.'

'Then we should have someone in this empire, shouldn't we?' Angel asked, thinking strategically, as always. 'We should have someone check it out, to get information.'

Felicity nearly laughed. Send one of the four humans into Midnight? If they were lucky, they would simply be killed. If they weren't, well, the other options weren't all that enticing. 'Angel, if anyone but you goes into this place, they won't come out. It's not typically a place were you would send humans that you care about.'

'It's that bad, eh?' Gunn commented.

'It's that bad and worse.'

'So how do we stop it?'

'You don't. Sooner or later, Silver's line out in New Mayhem is going to catch wind of this and stop it. There aren't enough of you to stop this by yourselves.'

'But we need to do something,'Cordelia argues. 'We can't just sit around and–'

Felicity cut her off. 'I know the people who work in that empire, alright? I know what they're capable of, and I know they will have no hesitation in mercilessly torturing you all to death if you interfere with their plans. these people have no heart to speak of; they have fetish in killing innocent people. If you go in there, you'll die, _if_ you're lucky. If you try and stop them, then kiss your arse goodbye. you my be strong, but four humans and a vampire won't be strong enough.' She stopped to catch her breath and regain her composure. She hade just given her speech without taking a single breath; she was sincere about her cause. She alone knew what would happen to them if they decided to be idiots. They had all seemed nice enough, and she didn't want to see them die. She sighed, and added, 'It's getting late, and I have work in the morning.' She jotted her cell phone number down on a napkin. 'Call me if there anything more I can do. Sorry I couldn't be more of a help.'

With those words, felicity stood up and walked out before anyone else could get in another word.

* * *

note: ok...bout this whole lunar vampire thing, becasue I know you think that I'm on crack right now. Ok, awhile back, I found this super awesome Atwater-Rhodes fansite, with all thins info that you don't get in the books. And anyway, it mentioned that Amelia has two types of vampires (lunar and solar) but has only written about lunar vamps as of yet. So, by simply claiming that Angel is a solar vamp, I can easliy explain all the differences betweens Amelia's vamps (Gabriel, Nikolas, Kristopher, ect.) and Joss Whendon's vamps (Angel).

a/n: so, did you like it? love it? or hate it? If you did hate, don't tell me...I perfer to live in my world of denial...please review peeps. Oh, and btw, I knew there is discrepency in the math. It's supposed to be like that, so please coughwormtailcough don't mention it in your review...


	3. A Night at the Theater

disclaimer: see previous chap (which says 'see previous chap' so basically, see chap one)

a/n: hey, sorry this took so long to get up. i'v been busy with school and everything, and I couldn't find my copy of Midnight Predator when I needed to check something, and, well, I'm just making up excuses that I suppose you don't want to hear...anyway, enough of me rambling on like a nut...enjoi

* * *

The days till Friday seemed to pass quickly. Angel Investigations had gotten a lead on another case, that briefly took their minds off the mysterious empire Felicity had given them word about. Felicity had been so worked up with preparing for her last show of the season, that her nightmares had briefly subsided. Her 394th birthday passed on Thursday. No one (save Lorne who sent her a card and a balloon)remembered, not that she really expected anyone too.

Before long, Friday rolled around. Show time. For those of you who have ever performed on stage, you know that its one of the best things that you could ever do. Felicity felt that way to an extreme. She had really learned to act back in Midnight, with Gabriel. She had to lie about so many things that she learned to act, making her lies all the more believable. Its very easy to learn and master things when it quite literally is a matter of life and death. The show went without many mistakes. Though Carmen forgot some of her lines, and started making them up, leaving Jonathan to have to improvise the entire speech he was supposed to say at that part so it would fit what Carmen said, and Larry (who was, well, let's just say he was a little more than overweight) tripped over the set, and landed on top of Felicity. Other than that, it was a great show.

After the show, Angel, Cordelia, Fred, Wesley, and Gunn showed up backstage to congratulate her on a wonderful show (Fred and Gunn also asked if broke any ribs when Larry accidently fell on her... a question that many of her co-workers had asked as well). She introduced Angel to everyone as her Uncle Al and his co-workers. Carmen pulled her away for a quick word shortly afterwards.

'Your uncle,' she said. 'Is he married?'

'Yes,' Felicity answered, trying not to laugh.

'To who?'

'My aunt, genius.'

'Oh right.'

'Besides, he's too old for you.'

'He doesn't look that old.'

'He's, er, a lot older than he looks.'

'Whatever.'

Felicity was packing up her things and about to head off to Karatas with Angel and his people, when she felt a chill rundown her spine and the presence of someone she had nearly forgotten.

She spun around quickly, coming face to face with Daryl. (a/n: this story takes place a little while before Midnight Predator does, simply because I need the presence of Daryl and Jeshickah)

'Fancy seeing you here,' she said coldly.

'You know, I never liked you simply because you didn't know when to keep your mouth shut,' he answered.

'And no one has ever liked you, Daryl,' she said with a grin. 'So, why are you here?'

'Well I saw your name and figured that I should see if it was really you. Your name has been talked of a lot lately, by Gabriel in particular.' Felicity tried not to flinch at the sound of her old masters name. 'He's looking for you again, you know,' he added as an after thought.

'Oh, Daryl, I didn't know you were playing the part of Gabriel's messenger boy now,' she said with contempt. His news about Gabriel sent another wave of chills down her spine. If Gabriel really wanted to find her, than she couldn't stop him; she was blood-bonded to him, and he could find her as easily as he could find another vampire in his line. Blood calls to blood. Fortunately, she also knew that if she managed to offend Daryl enough then he would conveniently forget to mention to Gabriel that he had seen her, making it only slightly more difficult for him to find her.

'What did you say,' he hissed.

'I said I didn't realize that you were Gabriel's messenger boy. You're doing a lovely job though.'

Daryl backslapped her with ease; not as hard as he could of, but hard enough to make her stumble a bit. Reflexively, she raised her hand to her cheek, pulling it back, she saw blood on her finger tips.

At this point Angel noticed that something was going on, and came to check on Felicity, making sure she didn't do anything stupid.

'Who's this?' Daryl asked.

'This is Angel,' Felicity said.

Daryl looked at Angel for a bit. Sizing him up, seeing if he was worth the trouble of fighting at the moment. Apparently he decided not to, because he turned to leave. As he did, he silently told Felicity: _Gabriel will find you. And when he does, I'm just going to laugh_. _You deserve everything that you're going to get._

'Who was that?' Angel asked.

'Just...just someone I know, and hate,' she said, her voice dripping with contempt.

'Are you still coming to Karatas with us?'

'I don't think I'm up to it now,' she said.

'Ok, then, I'll walk you home.'

'Ok– wait, what?'

'I'm going to walk you home...make sure that guy doesn't show up again.'

'Angel, you don't need to do that. It's just Daryl, he's not as strong as he would like to be. I can hold my own...I'll be fine.'

'Felicity, you're our only lead on this case. We need you. If you get hurt or something, and aren't able to help us with this, well, we're screwed.'

'If it's really that important to you, then fine. Just let me finish getting my stuff together.'

As Felicity finished haphazardly throwing things in her bag, Angel went to tell the others what was going on. He returned just as she tossed her make-up bag in.

'You ready?' he asked.

'Yeah,' she said.

'Do you have a car, or did you walk?'

'Oh, I walked,' she said. 'My apartment is only a couple of blocks away, so I typically walk.'

'I see,' he replied. they headed outside and started to walk in silence, until Angel asked, 'That vampire, Daryl is what you called him. Is he pert of this empire?'

'Yeah, or at least I think he was. He was a big supporter of the sl–er, empire a couple centuries ago. It would make sense that he'd be a part of it now.'

'Is he the vampire that you're bonded to?'

'No, thank goodness. I would have gone mad by now if I was bonded to Daryl. He's just one of those people that you can't stand being around.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean. If you don't mind me asking, though, how did you learn about this empire?'

Felicity sighed._ Leave the trade out of this,_ she told herself. 'The vampire that I am bonded to is a fledgling of the vampire who created it. It's only natural that I would know the empire.'

'I guess that makes sense. The other day, when we first met, you said that if I sent anyone into this empire, they'd be killed...if they were lucky. What would happen if they don't get killed?'

_They most likely e sold into the slave trade, and spend the rest of their life knowing that they have no control over it, _she thought. 'I'm not sure, exactly. It depends on who you send in, how they get caught, who catches them, amongst...er...other things.'

Angel stared at her for a moment; the type of stare that you give people when you know they're not telling you the whole truth. He decided, however, not to press the subject. She obviously didn't want to talk about it. Angel knew from experience that it was not a good idea to pressure people into talking about their pasts. If they didn't want to talk about it, there was normally a reason behind that, most commonly was because their past was painful.

They reached Felicity's apartment soon after their conversation ended. Felicity invited Angel in, but he declined, saying he needed to get back to the hotel. She dumped her stuff on the chair inside her door, and started to fix herself some dinner. She sat and ate in silent contemplation as she thought about what she had found out that night. Gabriel was in fact looking for her, and she was going to try everything she could to not be found. She had worked hard to remain hidden from Gabriel, and she wasn't going to blow it all now. unfortunately, she knew of only one way that she'd be able to hide successfully. She was going to have to sing for Lorne. she had sworn long ago that she'd never do that, but she was stuck, and had nowhere else to go. If she wanted to keep her freedom, she was going to need Lorne's advice.

* * *

a/n: plz review, y'all. I'll try (key word being try, here) and get chap 4 up soon


	4. Singing for Lorne

disclaimer: see prev chap

a/n: ha ha...look at this...1778 words, posted 3 days after the last chapter...geez...I'm spoiling you guys, anyway, enjoi

* * *

The next morning Felicity got up around noon; she hadn't really fallen asleep until about 4 in the morning because she was wrestling with the idea of going to Karatas to sing. She was trying to waste as much time as possible before she headed over to Karatas; she was dreading the visit. She had decided to show up around dusk, and then spend the next two or so hours convincing herself to get up there and sing. It wasn't as though she were a bad singer; she had a wonderful voice and landed herself many leads in local musicals because of it. She didn't want Lorne to know about what had really happened to her. In fact, she didn't want anyone to know. Having someone else know was pretty much leaving the door open for them to make her talk about it. She had never talked to anyone about what happened to her in Midnight, and she had hoped that she never would have to. She was quite content in bottling all of it...burying it deep, deep, deep down were she wouldn't have to deal with it.

The afternoon passed much too quickly for her own comfort. Before she knew it, it was duck and she was sliding into the driver's seat of her '86 Mustang convertible. She put her lostprohpets CD in and turned up the volume. There might have been some people two blocks away who didn't hear the music. Felicity liked it this way, especially at a time like this. With her music that loud, it was almost impossible for her to think...something she didn't really want to do at the moment. Of course, with her luck, for probably the first time since she moved to L.A. eight years ago, all the lights on her way to Karatas were green. _So much for delaying this as long as possible with traffic jams,_ she thought.

She walked into the bar with a nervousness that she hadn't felt in ages. Her hands were trembling as she ordered herself a drink and sat down at her usual table. She sat there, staring at her drink, twisting the gold chain around her neck for what seemed like ages when Lorne sat down across from her.

'Angel told me that you had a run-in with an old acquaintance of yours last night,' he said conversationally.

'Yeah, unfortunately I did.'

'Not the type of guy that floats your boat, eh?'

'Hardly.'

Lorne paused for a moment. He had never seen her so quiet before...she wouldn't even look at him. 'Felicity, is everything alright?'

She looked up at him. She knew that she looked awful. She had spent most of the day practically pulling her hair out while trying to convince herself to come.

'Oh my giddy aunt,' Lorne whispered. 'Felicity, you look...terrible.'

'Thanks for rubbing it in, Lorne,' she said tiredly.

'Is there something you want to talk about?'

_And this would be the time to tell him that you're going to sing,_ the annoying little voice in the back of her head reminded her. Taking a deep sigh, she said, 'Actually, there is.'

Lorne looked absolutely astounded; he hadn't actually expected her to say yes. In all the years they had known each other, she had always been very private, telling him all the time to keep his green nose out of her business. This was quite an unexpected change.

'I need to sing,' she added. 'It's really important.'

'By all means, go ahead. I won't stop you.'

'Just promise me one thing. Don't mention it to anyone...ever....at all.'

'Everything I read is confidential, Felicity. You know that.'

Felicity waited until the current singer was finished before walking up. Never before had she felt so nervous. Now was the time when she was going to open up for the first time in what probably was a century. Not only was she about to let someone else on the secret she'd kept locked away for ages, but she was forcing herself to come to terms with it as well. Taking a deep breath, she waited for the music to begin, and she began to sing:

'It's easier to run

Replacing this pain with something numb

It's so much easier to go

Than face all this pain here all alone

Something has been taken from deep inside of me

A secret I've kept locked away no one can ever see

Wounds so deep they never show they never go away

Like moving pictures in my head for years and years they've played

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would

It's easier to run

replacing this pain with something numb

It's so much easier to go

Than face all this pain here all alone

Sometimes I remember the darkness of my past

Bringing back these memories I wish I didn't have

Sometimes I think of letting go and never looking back

And never moving forward so there'd never be a past

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would

Just washing it aside

All of the helplessness inside

Pretending I don't feel misplaced

It's so much simpler than change

It's easier to run

replacing this pain with something numb

It's so much easier to go

Than face all this pain here all alone

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would

If I could change I would take back the pain I would

Retrace every wrong move that I made I would

If I could stand up and take the blame I would

If I could take all my shame to the grave I would'

She stepped down and walked quickly over to her chair and immediately sat down. Lorne just stared at her in disbelief for several moments. _No wonder she never wanted to sing before,_ he thought.

'All that really happened?' he asked...he still couldn't quite believe it.

'Yeah.'

'And when he bonded you, he actually–'

'Mhmm.'

'In front of you?'

'Yeah.'

'And, the one, you had l–'

'Yes,' she said sharply, cutting him off.

'Oh wow,' he muttered.

'You know my problem, Lorne. Now what do I do?'she said after a brief silence.

'Well, right now, you really have to choices of what to do. The first, is keep running; keep trying to hide from Gabriel. And I can tell you now that that idea won't work for more than a week, at the most. You know that he can track you easily, and that it's pointless to run from him, because he'll find you anyway. Now your other option is too seek help and find some place to hide with that help. Find someone who be bale to help you defend yourself from Gabriel...someone who cares.'

'But he could still find me.'

'Yes. Gabriel finding you is inevitable; it's bound to happen one way or another. The question what is going to happen when he finds you. If you're on your own, he'll take you back to Midnight without any hesitation. All of your time trying to hide from him will be wasted. But if you're with someone who is more than willing to defend you, the chance of him leaving are significantly greater.'

'So, what? I hire a hitman?'

'More like a bodyguard. I'll leave to decide what you want to do. I need to go check up on some other clients.'

Even as Lorne walked away, she knew what she needed to do. She wasn't going to run and hide, like she had done for the past 170 years. She was going to find someone to help her. She wasn't going back to Midnight...not if she could help it. The only question was who?

Lorne was over at the other side of the bar, talking to Angel and Wesley, about whether there had been anymore news about the empire. Of course, with what he had just read in Felicity, there had been, but he wasn't going to tell them that. Not only was it against is rule of secrecy, but Felicity would most likely slaughter him.

'Well, since you can't tell us anything, is Felicity here? Perhaps we could get some more information out of her,' Wesley commented.

All of a sudden, Lorne had a brilliant idea. 'Lightning had just struck my brain,' he said quickly. 'It's so simple...why didn't I see it before?'

'Wait, what's so simple?' Angel asked.

'Angel, how important is the information Felicity can give to you? And how important is she?'

'We need her and her information, otherwise we're going to get nowhere on this case. Wesley hasn't been able to find anything about this empire in his books,' he said.

'So, if her life were, in well, let's say, mortal peril, would you help her?'

'Of course.'

'Hold on. I'll be back in a second.'

Angel and Wesley just stared at Lorne in confusion as he raced off across the bar.

Lorne sat down across from Felicity, saying, 'I have found the solution to your problem.'

'Kill Gabriel?' she asked.

'That would work, but no.'

'Then what?'

'Angel.'

'Come again?'

'Angel,' Lorne repeated. 'He needs the information that you hold about Midnight, and he's not the type of person who'd let you face Gabriel alone, even if he didn't need the information you have. He's willing to help you and let you stay at the hotel with him.'

'Lorne,' she said, and instant look of fury on her face,' you didn't tell them about what you just found out did you?'

'I didn't breathe a word. I just told them that you might be in immediate danger, and that you need someone to help you out. So, would you be willing to accept their help?'

'Doesn't look like I have much of a choice, now does it?'

'No, you really don't. C'mon, let's go tell Angel.'

Angel was more than willing to accept the idea of having Felicity stay with them, especially since her safety was in danger. He couldn't risk losing her. He did, however want to know exactly what was going on. He needed to know what he was up against, but Felicity didn't look as though she were going to tell him anytime soon. They arranged rides so that she could get her stuff and then head over to the hotel. Wesley was going to go with her; to give directions on how to get to the hotel, and to make sure that nothing happened along the way. Before she and Wesley walked out, Lorne told her quietly, 'You're going to have to tell them sooner or later.'

'I know,' he replied. 'Just not yet.'

After Wesley and Felicity left, Angel turned to Lorne. 'I need to know what's going on, Lorne. I need to know what we're up against.'

'I'm sorry, Angel-cakes, but I can't tell you that. Just give her some time, and she'll tell you.'

'I need to know as soon as possible.'

'I know that, but what has happened to her isn't easy to talk about. Things from her past have come back to haunt her; things that she has been trying to forget for over a hundred years, Angel. Give her time. She'll tell you.'

'Alright. I guess I have to take your word on this one.'

'Oh, and just make sure, that when she does tell you, that Fred is around to hear. There are some things that they can relate to.'

* * *

a/n: so, was it as good as you expected, or was it a disappointment? The song, for those of you who don't know, is Linkin Park's Easier to Run, and wormtail, its only coincidence that you sent me the lyrics to the song before I posted this chapter, I had been planning on using it since I decided to have Felicity sing for Lorne...very fitting, isn't it? Oh, and RNASun, I promise that Jaguar will hve a part in this soon enough..I just gotta get there is the problem. And since I don't believe I did this in the last chapter, thanks to you guys for reviewing...you keep reviewing, i'll keep writing


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